I work in a building and I enjoy food. And I obsessively write about the NBA. Most of my stuff is for Nylon Calculus.
Portland, OR
Joined July 2013
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My article archive can now be found here. Includes full details on week-in-review pieces. Will be fully updated eventually.
ascreamingcomesacrossthecour…
One of my favorite moments was Yabusele trying to back down Jrue and it ends up being an 18-foot fadeaway jumper.
Yabusele-LeBron was my favorite matchup going into the game. Yabusele bullied other teams in the Olympics, but it's harder to do that against LeBron.
For the warmup games, Team USA got better as the game went on and then nosedived in fourth quarters. Note they only had roughly a +10 point differential.
South Sudan, a country with five previous Olympic athletes and no medals, still has a good shot at qualifying for the next round. Would love to see them finish second in their group -- they can legitimately play.
Embiid hasn't had the biggest Olympics, but he's had some impressive blocks. Erasing a dunk is no easy feat anywhere.
As promised, Embiid starts against the smaller Puerto Rican team. My feed didn't start right away, but as usual the US opponent is making things even early in the 1st.
South Sudan is well coached and rebounds and defends well, and some of their players, like Jones and Shayok, can find shots against even elite defenses. They're a legitimate upset potential team.
South Sudan performed admirably -- Team USA has several future hall-of-framers who had all-star seasons before South Sudan even existed with sovereignty.
Not only do they have more NBA players, they have the same number of MVPs as South Sudan has former NBA players.
Justin retweeted
Had some hours to kill on a flight, so here's a deep dive into 3x3 basketball play by play data. We'll start with the womens game:
Here's a rudimentary win expectancy chart based on actual results by game score. At only 34 games, results are still somewhat noisy.
1/
Team USA has been so lucky with jump shots. The 3-point disparity is massive, and they've honestly been playing poorly besides those shots. One poor shooting night is an easy win for a good opponent.
Loved seeing Jokic just literally two-hand push Booker on a screen, and Booker gets called for the foul for being pushed. Need to find a clip of this because it's hilarious.
Watching the US-Serbia game from the start. The 2-10 start is rough. They're getting beat on cuts and layups like it's 2004 all over again. Embiid does not fit well in FIBA, and a pull-up 3 from Jrue is probably not in their plans.
Watched a reply of the USA-Germany game. Looked like the US would lose until, after having sat for a long stretch, LeBron comes in and immediately takes over.
Near 40 and he's just willing a team to a win on a team of all-stars (in a seemingly meaningless exhibition.)
Justin retweeted
Jrue Holiday doing Jrue Holiday things. Biggest play of the game so far @celticsblog
US/Sudan just traded leads real quickly there and still have 8 seconds to go. LeBron has been the stabilizing force all game long.